From Bush to Forest
by Carnivorous Angel
Summary: In their sixth year Skye and her friends come to Hogwarts from Australia and met new friends and enemies along the way. But sometimes friendships can turn into something more... FW/OC, GW/OC Included in your free starter kit,the awesomely awesome Kalea!
1. The Quidditch World Cup

**A/N Hi! So I've finally decided to submit a story, I've been through heaps of ideas bu I never write them down so nobody but me knows the story so they kind of get lost with all my other story ideas. But I've had time and I'm going to write this story!**

**Just some information to help with the story:**

**Name: Skyler Role: Main character, from her POV. Meaning of name: The Sky Name origin:Scottish Nicknames: Skye, Freddy**

**Name: Kalea Role: Friend of Skye, being awesomely awesomeness Meaning of Name:Joy, Happiness Name Origin:Hawaiian Nicknames:Kal, Bobby**

**Name: Gwen Role: Friend of Skye, revealed in later chapters Meaning of Name: Fair,white Name origin:Welsh **

**Name: Isabella Role: Friend of Skye, revealed in later chapters Meaning of Name: God is my oath Name origin:French -Nicknames:Bella**

**Name: Callidora Role: Friend of Skye, revealed in later chapters Meaning of Name:Gift of Beauty Name Origin:Greek Nicknames:Calli**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the above mentioned characters and anything to do with them.**

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"C'mon Freddy, have another butterbeer!" My friend Kalea shouted. We were at the Quidditch World Cup and had been celebrating the victory of the Irish for several hours, there were five of us, Gwen, Isabella, Callidora, Kalea and me, Skyler. We were on exchange from Australia for the next two years and we would be going to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry when the holidays were over.

We were all huge quidditch fans but Kalea and I were also massive fans of parties and of course, because we had been going for Ireland the _whole_ match –we had slipped our Bulgarian flags under Calli's bed in case someone found them - we joined in the festivities with gusto.

"Freeeeeeeeedddddddddddddddddyyyyyyy, butterbeer…" Kalea yelled, waving a butterbeer under my nose.

"Fine Bobby, I'll have a butterbeer." I laughed. We had been calling each other by Bobby and Freddy since we were about ten. It had been a joke between the two of us after Gwen had made us all play a game where we had to tell the other four what our dream husbands name would be. Gwen, Bella and Calli had actually thought about it and found it embarrassing when they told us. When it was my turn I looked at Kalea with my usual manic glint in my eye, before turning to the others with a huge smirk on my face and saying very simply "Fred." Kalea had burst out laughing because we had always used the names Fred, Bob and Billy-Bob for anything boy related, before she too smirked and said "So your going to have yourself a Freddy boy are you? Well then I'm going to have myself a Bobby boy." The two of us were rolling on the floor laughing while the others had just given us disapproving looks. Since then that was basically all we called each other, unless reprimanded by our parents or teachers.

I had just finished my butterbeer when we suddenly heard screaming, Kalea and I shared a look before we – and the other three – moved closer together, there was safety in numbers after all.

People were fleeing for the forest and when we tried to ask a woman what was going on she pointed behind her before continuing to run away. When we looked towards where she had pointed what we saw frightened even me. There were men in masks and cloaks moving towards with what looked like a family of muggles floating above them. They were laughing and jeering and from the sounds of it they were very drunk.

"They're deatheaters!" Calli yelled above the noise. None of us needed telling twice. We all knew that deatheaters were You-Know-Who's supporters; though what they were doing at the world cup was a mystery to me. We hurried towards the forest with the rest of the witches and wizards in the campsite. When we reached the trees we realised one thing straight away, there was no light. We could see nothing and no one. I continued to run for a while, hoping that the others were behind me.

Not long later I noticed that I could no longer feel the press of bodies around me and I started to worry. I'm a strong girl, but I was alone in a forest in a foreign country. I suddenly remembered something, my wand wasn't registered over here meaning no one would be any the wiser if I cast a spell or two. I pulled out my wand – Eucalyptus 9" unicorn hair – and muttered "Lumos."

The forest was thrown into sharp relief by the light and I immediately understood that I was quite far off the path. I started looking around for a way back to everyone else when I tripped over a tree root. For most people this would really only hurt their pride – and maybe their face if they didn't cover it – but I have weak ankles and I felt the familiar pain as my ankle twisted. Now I was not only lost, I was stuck. I sat down with a sigh and studied the light coming out of my wand. If a deatheater came this way and found me I was at their mercy, after all I couldn't exactly run with a sprained ankle. Suddenly I heard voices coming through the trees, they sounded like boys the same age as me, most likely _not _deatheaters.

"Look George, there's a light over there we should head that way." One of the voices was saying.

"We can't be sure it's not a deatheater though, Fred." No. _Definitely not_ deatheaters if they thought I was one. I was about to call out that it was alright and I wasn't a deatheater when a girls voice joined theirs.

"It looks like the only way out of here. We'll just have to take our chances. Maybe you should have your wands out?"

A few moments later the three people that belonged to the voices burst through the trees, the two boys had their wands raised high. When they saw that it was just me they lowered their wands and came over to where I was sitting, "Why are you out here alone?" One of them asked.

"I got separated from my group and then I sprained my ankle on that tree root." I said, glaring at the tree root in question. The boys laughed at my glaring and the girl hid a smile behind one hand – the other was held tightly by one of the boys.

"Well we can help you." The one who had spoken earlier – They were identical so I couldn't tell the difference in the light - said. He made sure that his brother – they were identical – had a firm grip on the girl, who, judging by the flaming red hair was their sister, before he scooped me up bridle style and started walking. My wand was still lit so we followed its light.

"You know, I may have a sprained ankle but I could still walk, I'd just need to lean on you."

"Well, um… what's your name?" The twin who was carrying me said.

"Oh, right. It's Skyler, but if you call me that I'll kill you. So call me Skye." I said threatening him with my wand.

He smirked down at me before he said "I'm Fred, My lesser half over there is George and the girl is our little sister, Ginny. As I was going to say before, you're too short to lean on me so you're going to have to deal with being carried this way." He was still smirking at me like he was superior – which I guess he was, because he could easily have left me where I had been, - and I really wanted to wipe that smirk off his face.

"I'll have you know that I'm 5 9"." I said. I thought that that was quite a good height for a girl.

"And I'm 6 2" So your too short." Somehow his grin got larger and I _really _wanted to slap him.

We walked in silence for a while before Ginny decided to bring up something that had obviously been bothering her. "Hey, where are you from?" she asked "I don't recognize your accent." Though Fred and George were watching the ground in front of them I knew their attention was fixed on our conversation.

"Well, I'm offended! Don't you watch TV?" I asked incredulously. She shook her head. I smiled, "Well you see, I'm an Aussie." A puzzled look appeared on all of their faces. "I come from the land down under." The puzzled look stayed rooted on their faces. I sighed. "I'm Australian!" Recognition lit up all three faces.

"I've always wanted to go there." Ginny said wistfully. "It always sounds so beautiful, our brother Charlie went there once. There was a dragon problem." Unexpectedly I realized something; these people must be the Weasleys. Charlie had talked about his brothers and sister when he stayed at our house because there was a dragon living in the bush across the road. I was about to mention to them that I knew Charlie when we were amazingly out of the forest and back at the campsite. The deatheaters were gone and everyone was quiet. I whispered a hasty "Nox" and the light on my wand went out, I tucked it into my pocket before surveying the scene. Everything was a wreck. There were some tents smoking – they must have been set on fire – and a lot of scared people all pointing up at the sky above the forest. I craned my head to see what it was and gasped, the Weasley children must have seen it too because they had also gasped. High above the forest the dark mark sat in the sky and I abruptly felt sick, it could easily have been any of my friends who had been killed.

I tugged on Fred's shirt. "My tent's over there. Can we hurry?" He nodded and signalled to George as we all headed over to my tent. When we were not to far away Fred turned and muttered something to George which I didn't quite catch.

"How far away is your tent?" Fred asked. I noticed that George was now saying something to Ginny.

"It's that one there." I said pointing.

"Funny. That one next to it is ours." Fred laughed.

We headed over to the tents but just before we reached the one I was staying in someone came bounding out and hugged me – a bit awkward due to the fact that Fred was still carrying me – when they was done hugging me they had a huge grin on their face and I realized who it was straight away – there were only a few lanterns lit at the time – her curly hair and her athletic figure gave her away. It was Kalea.

"Bobby!"

"Freddy! My girl! The others were convinced you were the one who was killed. Well, actually, Gwen thought you had been abducted by hobos… but Calli and Bella thought you were dead."

"And you didn't?" I asked, suspicious of what her answer would be.

"Nah. I told them that we would have heard something if it had been you, I know that you wouldn't go down without a fight." She grinned at me. "So who are they?" She asked indicating Fred, George and Ginny. I introduced them to each other before suggesting that Fred put me down. When I was safely on my own two – well, one – feet I looked at Kalea. She could easily win the award for most pretty smile.

"So ankle or knee?" She asked. She seriously knew me _way _too well. She was used to me injuring myself, I injured myself a lot.

"Ankle." Kalea cast a quick spell and there was immediately no more pain.

"Hey, um… Skye, why did she call you Freddy?" Fred asked, I hadn't even thought of my nickname when he had told me his name, I'm that much of an airhead some times.

"Long story." I said sharing a look with Kalea. "Look, I better go explain to my friends that I'm not dead… wow, that's going to be an interesting conversation. But I should see you soon enough. You go to Hogwarts right?" They nodded. "Well then we'll definitely see ya 'round." I said beaming at the Weasleys, I waved at them before starting to walk the short way to my tent with Kalea, on the way there I explained to her what had happened in the forest, and, as a good friend should she listened with rapt attention.

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**A/N Hope you liked it , that was sort of like the introduction before Hogwarts, which is where the real story starts.**

**Please R&R as I won't update without reviews. Please no flames.**


	2. The feast and the sorting

**So i was just fixing up cats names, and Fred and George's OWL's -for those who've already read the chapter what i changed -Skye's cats are Lisca (an Ocicat) and Zeke (a tuxedo cat). I also fixed up that Fred does Transfiguration, George does Herbology. And in the books they don't do potions but i'm leaving that in cause hey it's Snape right?**

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"Oi Bobby, did you bring the exploding snap?" I asked my friend, Kalea.

"Of _course _I did, why wouldn't I have brought it? You're the one with the short term memory. _Remember?_" She retorted. She was right – of course – I didn't really remember stuff I was supposed to take places. I remember once I was going for a stay with my Grandma for a few days and I forgot a toothbrush, a change of clothes and the list goes on. The only thing I ever really remember is numbers, I don't know why but I have an uncanny ability to remember numbers. It's why I chose to take arithmancy for my O.W.L's. My friends and I were on the Hogwarts Express; the five of us had a compartment to ourselves and were discussing what subjects we would be taking for the next two years.

"Skye!" Gwen yelled waving her hand in front of my face. That's my short term memory, can't even pay attention to a conversation.

"What's up?" I asked, tilting my head to one side.

"Would you shut your cat's up?" I hadn't even noticed that they were yowling, should have known they would be, the only times they ever had to go in their carry cases was when they were going to the vets or the cattery, poor cats. I have two cats, Dumbledore allowed me to bring them both because they don't like being separated. Gwen, Bella and Calli all had their own cats but because Kalea had an owl she'd be borrowing one of my cats for anything we would need a familiar for.

"Skye. Cats. Quiet. _Please._" Gwen said. I smiled at her, my cats could be very loud when they wanted to be, just like me. I let them out of their cases, My female cat – an Ocicat- was named Lisca while the male – a tuxedo cat – was named Zeke.

Lisca settled herself down on the empty seat while Zeke was picked up by Kalea who talked to him in the voice she reserves for animals and babies. The other three all let their cats out – Gwen has a pure white moggie named Snow, Bella has a Birman named Mischa and Calli has a Burmese named Sapphire – and they quickly claimed their spots in the carriage. Not long later the whistle blew and the train was off. Kalea took out the deck of exploding snap and we all played a few rounds, I never had it explode on me. When the sweets trolley came around we all selected our favourite food off it – mine was Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean – and made sure that we had enough for everyone to have some. When it was time we changed into our robes and not long after that we got out of the train – we had to fight with the cats first though, to get them into their carry cases – and followed the other students to the carriages which, apparently, were pulled by invisible horses. We all got into one of the carriages and talked the whole way to Hogwarts.

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Hogwarts was an impressive sight. It was an amazingly large – and most likely extremely old – castle which struck us all speechless, which, I should mention is very hard to do. When we reached the front steps a teacher, who told us to call him Professor Snape led us into the entrance hall. By this time we were all remarkably wet as it had been pouring outside and when he wasn't looking we cast a few drying spells.

After all the other students had gone into the great hall he led us in and told us to stand along the wall at the back. He then walked up to the teachers table at the front of the hall. I looked at Kalea and she looked at me, I could tell she was thinking the same thing as me, we did _not_ like 'Professor' Snape, He would probably find a frog in his bed or something horrible like that. Maybe we'd embarrass him in front of the whole school, that would really stop him strutting around like he owned the place.

When the sorting started I realized something right away, we were going to be standing where we were for a while. I nudged Kalea with my elbow and when she looked at me I mouthed the words 'truth or dare?' to her. When she nodded I looked around for some- -thing I could dare her to do and my eyes fell on a boy at Slytherin table making obscene gestures towards Calli. I pointed him out to Kalea who understood my dare immediately, _put him in his place_. She pointed her wand at him and muttered something incoherent and the next second his face broke out in enormous pimples which spelt the word PERVERT. She did it so well that you could probably read it from the other side of the room.

The boy – We later found out that his name was Marcus Flint – started screaming and his friends looked around for his attacker – luckily Kalea had put her wand back in her robes – while all the other houses roared with laughter. Professor Snape leapt up from the teachers table to help the boy out. As he was hurrying along the aisle between Slytherin and Ravenclaw Kalea nudged me and pointed towards his pants, I knew what my dare now was, and it would not be easy with everyone watching Snape. I drew out my wand but kept it hidden within the folds of my robes before going through all the spells that could perform what I wanted to do. I finally came across one that made things invisible. I murmured it as quietly as possible and watched as Snape's pants became invisible. I hastily stuffed my wand in my pocket before laughing along with the rest of the school about Snape's white boxers with embroided pink hearts on them. I turned to Kalea and gave her a smug smile, we gave each other a high five at our waists and watched Snape hurry out of the hall.

When he came back in he had his pants back and looked ready to kill, the laughter stopped suddenly as he strode over to the Gryffindor table and was about to yell at two boys, no, yell at the _Weasley_ twins, the ones I had met at the Quidditch World Cup. I nudged Kalea and saw her nod out of the corner of my eye, she knew who they were too.

I had learnt more about the twins after I met them, my father worked at the Australian Ministry for Magic and I read the file on them from Hogwarts, it was the largest student file I had ever seen, it turned out they had caused quite a lot of mischief in their time at Hogwarts. Maybe, more than Kalea and me. Kalea had read it over my shoulder and we had both laughed at most of the things they did. When we read it we had found that they targeted Professor Snape more than any other teacher which was probably why he thought that they were the ones who had made his pants disappear.

Because I was feeling nice, – to the twins, _not _the teacher - I gave Kalea my best 'watch this' look and then sent a spell right at Snape's head. The next second his hair was a vivid bubblegum pink. When all the Gryffindors started laughing and Snape caught sight of his hair he obviously knew that the twins hadn't done it because he started looking around for the culprit. Once he had scanned all the tables he looked at us with a new look in his eye, and, because both Kalea and I could tell that he knew that one of us had done it, and we didn't want the other three getting in trouble we batted our eyelashes, smiled sweetly and waved our girliest waves at him. It worked. He looked positively livid and the other students were all looking on with rapt attention as he strode_ extremely _fast towards us. Just as he was close enough to tell us off another teacher – turns out it was Professor McGonagall head of Gryffindor and the transfiguration teacher – and told him that he was not allowed to give us detention before classes started, he was most definitely_ not _happy about this news. He gave us one last menacing stare before striding away with as much dignity as anyone could muster with bubblegum pink hair.

Not long after that the sorting was over and Professor McGonagall explained to the students that we had swapped schools with five sixth year students from Hogwarts and that we would be finishing our schooling at Hogwarts. She then explained that because our old school separated the houses for different reasons we would have to be sorted by the sorting hat.

"_Great." _I whispered sarcastically to Kalea. "I've _always _wanted to have a mangy old hat sitting on my head looking at my most intimate thoughts and memories." She giggled at this and I think McGonagall heard because her mouth suddenly became very thin and she made me come out first… or maybe that's because my last name is first when they're in alphabetical order.

"Archer, Skyler"

I walked up to the sorting hat and sat on the stool, McGonagall placed the hat on my head and suddenly it was in my head talking to me.

"Well hello. You'd do well in any house did you know that? You're loyal to your friends, you're cunning, you're smart and you're brave. But which would suit you best? Not Hufflepuff, no… Slytherin maybe? They like their purebloods there and you're definitely one of them…But smarts like those you have should be in Ravenclaw… but maybe Gryffindor? You are extremely brave after all, to think you can get away with tricking a Professor … No. You don't belong in Slytherin, too happy and joyful to be in there and the head of house hates you already… Your bravery outshines you're smarts… and I've put smart ones in Gryffindor before… Yes! That is where you belong!" And then he yelled out so that the whole school could hear, "GRYFFINDOR!" There was cheering and applause from the red clad table, which I noticed contained the Weasley twins who were signaling me over to where they were sitting, I went over to where they were and sat down at the seat offered to me.

"That had to be," One twin started.

"The longest," The other twin continued.

"The sorting hat ever took!" They finished together. I laughed at them before turning my attention back to the sorting, after all it _was_ my friends who were being sorted.

"Cook, Callidora."

Calli went up to McGonagall and I saw many of the guys who had been talking to each other suddenly look up in expectation, her parents hadn't given her a name that meant gift of beauty for nothing. Calli had the hat lowered onto her head, but it had barely brushed her hair when it yelled out "RAVENCLAW!" There was screaming and cheering from the blue table this time and she caught my eye on the way there, quite a few of the boys at the Ravenclaw table offered for her to sit next to them and she took an offer from a sixth year boy to sit with him and his friends.

"Edwards, Isabella."

Bella's sorting only took a second or so more than Calli's and the result was the same, as the sorting hat screamed, "RAVENCLAW!" This too was met with tumultuous applause. I noticed again the boys in Ravenclaw were offering seats to her and some of the Hufflepuff guys looked dejected.

"Griffiths, Kalea."

I watched Kalea more than I had the other two, I had known that they would get into Ravenclaw, Gwen probably would to, although she could end up in Gryffindor, but Kalea would almost definitely get into Gryffindor, after she did a lot of stupid things with me. The sorting hat sat on her head for about a minute before screaming out, "GRYFFINDOR!" I cheered along with the rest of the house but I could swear some of the guys were cheering louder than me, oh well, all my friends were pretty it was to be expected, I briefly wondered whether any of the guys had cheered that loudly for me but then the thought was gone because Kalea had sat down next to me.

"Nice going Bobby!"

"You too Freddy!" We then did our handshake before turning to pay attention to Gwen's sorting.

"Knight, Gwen."

She walked up and donned the dirty old hat, it wasn't too long though before the hat yelled, "RAVENCLAW!" She went to join Bella, Calli and the people they had made friends with. A lot of the Ravenclaw guys looked as if Christmas had come early. Dumbledore than stood up and said "I have only two words for you; tuck in." After he said that, food appeared on the table and Fred and George struck up a conversation with us and introduced us to their friends; Lee, Alicia and Angelina.

"So all of us are in the house quidditch team except for Lee who's the commentator." Fred said. I had worked out that his face was a tiny bit gaunter than George's and he had the front of his hair curled back, which helped a lot. His voice was also a semitone higher, I decided I would tell all this to Kalea when we were in our dorm so that she would be able to tell them apart to.

"Oh really? What positions do you all play?" I asked.

"Alicia and I are chasers and Fred and George are our beaters. They're like a pair of human bludgers themselves." Angelina said.

"Oh, I see." I said. I didn't want to break Fred and George apart but _I _was a beater, and I was a very good one at that.

"What about the rest of your team?" Kalea asked.

"Well Katie's our other Chaser, Harry Potter is our seeker," Kalea and I both widened our eyes at this statement, I had completely forgotten that Harry Potter was in Gryffindor. Angelina smiled at us before continuing, "And we currently don't have a keeper. Are either of you keepers?" She asked, her voice taking on a pleading tone at the end.

"I'm afraid we're not." I said in an offhand tone. "But Kalea is a chaser and I'm a beater." Fred and George both choked on their food when I said that.

"You? A beater? A _girl?_" George spluttered. If he hadn't added on that bit about a girl being a beater I might not have been so angry but that was just proving how sexist people could be. After all girls could be chasers, keepers and seekers, why couldn't they be beaters? I was about to ask him this when Kalea, obviously sensing an anger storm from me butted in.

"Um, Fred or is it George?"

"George."

"Well, George. Skye is very much a feminist, so asking how a girl can be a beater is most definitely not a good thing to say near her. Also, I'll have you know that she is very good, the Wollongong Warriors _and _the Thundelarra Thunderers offered her a position on their teams." At their blank looks after she named the teams she said, "The two most famous Australian teams, also very big rivals."

"Well, great. I just didn't see how a girl could be a beater."

"You also got offers from both of those teams as well as a few others." I said quietly and then a bit louder "You don't see how a girl could be a beater do you?" I asked menacingly. The twins and their friend Lee all shook their heads. "Well have you ever heard of the Hollyhead Harpies?" I asked, this time they nodded. "And how they only accept witches?" More nodding. "If _they _only accept witches then their beaters must be 'girls' mustn't they?" Acknowledgment dawned on their faces "Good." After that we left the subject of quidditch and moved onto which subjects everyone would be taking.

"We're going to take potions, defense against the dark arts, charms and transfiguration for me, George takes herbology rather than transfiguration." Fred said, indicating himself and George.

"You only got four O.W.L.'s?" I asked astounded, Kalea and I had gotten ten each!

"We were busy." Fred said off-handedly. "Why how many did you get?"

"ten."

"Oh. What in?"

"Um," I answered, I had to think for a second to remember. "Transfiguration, charms, potions, care of magical creatures, defense against the dark arts, arithmancy, astronomy, ancient runes, herbology and history of magic."

"Geez. Are there any subjects you didn't take?" George asked

"Yes!" I said haughtily. "Divination and muggle studies." Fred snorted into his pumpkin juice while George stared at me.

"Looks like we've got a Hermione on our hands." George said to Fred who nodded.

"Hermione? Who's that?" I said to them.

"Well, that's Hermione there, she's Harry Potter's friend." I looked to where Fred had pointed to see a bushy haired girl talking to who I presumed to be Harry Potter and another red-headed boy.

"And who's that?" I asked, pointing to the boy in question.

"That's ickle Ronniekins." Fred said.

"Your brother?" I asked raising an eyebrow. The twins nodded. Just then the desserts all vanished off the table Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter that had filled the hall ceased at once so that all we could hear was the howling wind and pounding rain.

"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling down at us "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle this year has extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs ("Damn" I muttered to Kalea and the twins "I have three of those in my suitcase") . The full List comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it.("We know it off by heart, we've been in there that many times." George murmured) "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the Forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." I looked at Fred and George were mouthing wordlessly at Dumbledore and Kalea was staring at me as if to say "What do we do now?" I wasn't happy about this, I loved quidditch too much, if I couldn't play I still wanted to be able to watch, but now it was _cancelled._

Dumbledore continued to speak " This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts –"

There was a sudden rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open. A man stood in the doorway, he was leaning on a long staff, shrouded in a black travelling cloak and as he walked a clunk was heard on every other step. When the lightning hit, his face was thrown into sharp relief. His face was like none I had ever seen before. Every patch of skin seemed to be scarred, the mouth was like a large diagonal gash and part of the nose was missing. But the worst part was the eyes, one of them was small, dark and beady. The other was large, round as a coin and a vivid, electric blue. It moved ceaselessly without blinking, it moved up, down, side to side and then it rolled right into the back of his head.

When he reached Dumbledore they shook hands and Dumbledore muttered something. Then he spoke "May I introduce our new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody." His announcement was followed by silence except for a bit of clapping by Dumbledore and Hagrid who stopped quickly.

Dumbledore cleared his throat again "As I was saying, we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" Fred said loudly. Nearly everyone laughed and Dumbledore chuckled.

"I am _not _joking Mr. Weasley, though, now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar –"

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er – but maybe this is not the time … no …" said Dumbledore. "Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament …" Dumbledore continued but I stopped paying attention there. I already knew what the Triwizard Tournament was I had read enough about it. I could see Fred and George discussing it and after Dumbledore mentioned the thousand Galleons prize money he hissed to the whole table that he was entering.

The twins were infuriated though when Dumbledore spoke of the age restriction and they were still discussing it when we left the hall to go to the common room. When Kalea and I went to see Calli, Bella and Gwen they went to talk to Harry Potter, the Hermione girl and their little brother, presumably about the Triwizard Tournament.

When Kalea and I reached our dormitory which we would be sharing with Angelina and Alicia I explained to her the differences I had noted between the twins and she told me the ones she had spotted. After we had settled the cats we changed into our pajama's and got into our beds, I had weird dreams that night including – but not limited to – flying purple monkeys with the faces of Fred and George Weasley.


	3. Snape, Pranks, dares and underpants

**A/N I am so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so sorry that I haven't updated! And I no that my excuses don't mean much but I will still tell you why I haven't updated.**

**You see, my mother banned me from the computer between mondays and thursdays unless it is for schoolwork! Then we got our school assignments (I still need to do one) and then I got writers block on this chapter which I REALLY hate. I hate this chapter so much, it's really bad... it's sort of a filler though so yeah. That's about it...**

**I would also like to thank those people who reviewed. I'm going to try to reply to all the ones that I get this chapter! So thankyou o great reviewers!**

**On with the story!**

* * *

The next few days flew by and thankfully it wasn't until Friday that we had potions, problem was, it was double potions. Kalea and I had just finished a lengthy discussion about the best way to fake sick when Fred and George showed up to 'chaperone' us to class.

"Come on." Fred said. "It's not like he can physically torture you or anything."

"Ah, yes." I replied "He can't _physically _torture us, but he can mentally torture us." I cringed as another thought popped into my head "He could also make us test the potions and _accidently _forget to give us the antidote."

"Oh, he does _that _all the time." George smirked. "Don't worry though," He said seeing our faces, "Madame Pomfrey knows the cure for _everything._ She'll fix you, no matter what he gives you."

"Yes, but maybe he'll lock us in the dungeon until we die." Kalea whispered.

"Nah." Fred said, "He values his job too much."

"That may be so, but you haven't seen the looks he gives us when he passes us in the corridors." She replied, I nodded at them from where I was standing. Kalea was right about that, Snape had thrown us the dirtiest looks possible whenever he saw us. I suddenly realized that we had stopped walking and deduced from the large black doors and the cobwebs all around that we were just outside Snape's classroom. I was starting to think that I should've dropped potions instead of history of magic, herbology or ancient runes.

The black doors flew open and the figure of Severus Snape appeared. He called us in and leered at Kalea and me as we walked past. I couldn't help but feel that it was going to be a long lesson.

We took the seats closest to the back, and the fact that Fred and George sat on either side of us comforted me a little bit, but not enough to get rid of the flesh eating butterflies that were flying around in my stomach.

There was a hush over the class as Snape went up to his desk and opened his mouth to speak. "Today we will be brewing a potion known as Xertan. It is an extremely acidic potion and spilling any on the body will cause severe burns and skin loss." He seemed to be looking at Kalea and me as he said those last few words and his lip curled up into a smirk.

I looked wistfully over to where Calli, Bella and Gwen were sitting, those three were marvellous at potions, if I had been smart enough to sit over there than maybe the butterflies that were slowly eating their way out of my stomach would have turned inwards and gone to sleep until they thought it necessary to get out of my insides again.

I looked up at the board to see the ingredients and the method written up waiting for us to start, Kalea was dumping the ingredients on our desk and she nudged me to get the cauldron out. Fred and George were already busy chopping up mandrake roots and starting their cauldron boiling.

Kalea and I worked in silence for most of the lesson but only because we both knew that there was no need for words as we could both tell what the other was thinking, 'Snape is going to kill us.'

It wasn't until near the end of the lesson when Snape actually came over to us to see how we were going. Sadly for him though the potion was perfect and he had no way to _accidently _spill it on us as Fred and George were both watching intently and Gwen-my little lifesaver-had come over to ask him a question. Snape left our desk with a look of disgust and Kalea and I high-fived each other under the desk, we had been saved from the wrath of Professor Snape for the day.

* * *

"Now, when the Slytherins walk past we drop the balloons on their heads?" Fred asked. He and George had been sceptical of Kalea and my wonderful plan to drop balloons filled with bubotuber pus on the Slytherins ever since we had told them about it.

"Yes." Kalea answered, speaking very slowly as if talking to a baby. "When the Slytherins walk along that corridor we drop the balloons and watch the Slytherins scream in disgust."

"And then we run like hell." I added.

Fred and George shook their heads as if our idea wasn't going to work, but Kalea and I would soon be the ones shaking our heads when the plan worked brilliantly.

"I still don't think it will work." George stated simply.

The twin's pessimistic attitude was starting to get on my nerves and I decided that telling them the truth about this prank might shut them up.

"Look." I said "Kalea and I have done this prank before." The twins lifted their eyebrows at this. "We filled three great big balloons with bubotuber pus and dropped them on Calli, Bella and Gwen. Trust me, it's the most simple but effective prank and it is _hilarious_ to watch."

"hmph." Was the only reply I got from the twins and then, from the corridor below us we heard the unmistakable sound of big fat Slytherin feet plodding along.

We pepped over the edge of the railing to see some of the fourth year Slytherins walking along. Fred whispered to us that their names were Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson and Malfoy. I had never heard of the first three but I had met the Malfoy kid once, he was a horrible brat and because my mother was head of the department of Foreign affairs in Australia we had had to have the Malfoy family stay at our house. I was only eleven at the time and Draco - I think that was his name - had followed me everywhere I went. I couldn't wait to drop the balloon on him.

The group stopped at the point we had marked for them with some candy and the two who I assumed were Crabbe and Goyle bent down and scooped it all up. Kalea put three fingers up and while she was putting them down she mouthed to us, 'three, two, one.' We dropped the balloons over the railings and listened to them scream for a few seconds before we turned and made a mad dash to a secret passage Fred and George had told us about.

By the time we had reached the common room we were laughing so hard that a few tears spilled out of my eyes. George only just managed to splutter out the password before we collapsed on the common room floor.

It took us about five minutes to regain enough composure to speak a proper sentence and it was Kalea who spoke first. "See, we told you it was pure genius."

"You're right." Fred said before collapsing into laughter again.

After laughing for a bit longer we headed up to our dorms for some well deserved shut eye.

* * *

The next month passed by uneventfully-well, besides a few pranks here and there. And that incident with Snape and the magical flying pudding, but hey, besides all that it was pretty uneventful-and one Saturday I decided that we needed to spice things up a bit. Kalea, the twins and I were relaxing under an old willow tree next to the lake when I suggested a game of truth or dare.

"Ok." Fred said. "I'll start. George, truth or dare."

"Dare."

"I dare you to…" Fred said, looking around. "Got it! Dak that guy over there!" Fred said, pointing to a second year boy who seemed a bit up himself.

"Easy as pie." George said. He waved his wand and muttered a spell and as we watched the boys pants came down, his face burned and he ran off while his friends giggled.

"My turn now." George said. "Kalea, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"I dare you to…" George looked around for inspiration, and then seeming to find some in a couple holding hands looked back towards Kalea. "I dare you to kiss me."

"WHAT?!" Kalea almost screamed. George just smirked and I couldn't help but giggle a little bit, for which Kalea hit me.

"You heard me." He said, his smirk widening. "unless, of course… You're a chicken." He raised his eyebrows and waggled them at her. We all knew the rules of Hogwart's truth or dare, if you didn't answer or do your dare you had to purposefully get in trouble in potions and have a detention with Snape. Nobody wanted a detention with Snape.

Kalea crinkled her nose and leant forwards, she quickly pecked George on the lips before going and dunking her head in the lake.

"Aw. Come on, it wasn't that bad." George said once Kalea had gotten back. She just grimaced at him. Fred and I smirked at each other and, sadly, Kalea saw.

"Oh, so you think it's funny do you Skye?" She said, glaring at me.

"Not at all!" I said, a bit worried about the way she was looking at me.

"Hmph. Well then, Skye. Truth or dare?"

Uh oh. I thought to myself. Whichever way I went I was going to get sorely embarrassed that I could tell. It was just which one would be more embarrassing?

"Dare?" I asked hesitantly.

Kalea smirked before she said, "I dare you to go swimming in the lake with nothing but your undies and bra on." Her smirk seemed to grow to an impossible size.

I didn't see the point in arguing as I would only end up with detention. I stripped down to my 'undergarments' – which happened to be my only lacy set in hot pink and black – and dived quickly into the lake which felt like a bath full of ice. I broke the surface and started shivering. The other three were grinning down at me and I started treading water so that I could watch them.

"Having fun?" Fred yelled. I answered him with the finger. He laughed.

"I dare you all to join me." I yelled.

They stared at me but all of them knew they had no choice unless they wanted to spend their free time with Snape.

Kalea was first in with her green and purple bra and knickers set and Fred and George soon followed suit. It turned out that both of them were boxer men, which didn't really surprise me, what did surprise me however was that George's boxers were covered in love hearts while Fred's had a superman design. I wonder if the Weasleys even knew who Superman was.

The four of us mucked about in the lake for a while until we heard a cough from the shore. We turned around to see Professor McGonagall standing there holding our clothes in one hand and beckoning us with the other.

We slowly got out of the water to stand in front of her and when we were all there she let us have it. "How DARE you disgrace Gryffindor like this! What were you thinking!" She continued on in this way for a while but I stopped paying attention pretty early on and it wasn't until she said to follow her to her office that I actually started listening again, though I wished I hadn't.

Professor McGonagall had started walking when Kalea spoke up, "Um. Profess-"

Professor McGonagall cut her off sharply, "No, Miss Griffiths you may NOT have your clothes back yet. Maybe this will teach you a lesson." McGonagall started walking and we had no choice but to follow.

As we walked through the corridors of the school – Kind old Professor McGonagall seemed to be taking us on the scenic route – we got many wolf whistles and cat calls from the other students and McGonagall didn't even bother telling them to shut up.

When we finally reached her office many of the teachers already seemed to be there, including Professor Snape and McGonagall finally gave us our clothes and sent us into another room to get changed.

By the time we got back out the teachers had already decided our punishment and it wasn't pretty.

"50 points have been deducted from Gryffindor for inappropriate dress and behaviour. Also, you will be serving detention with Mr Filch for the next _month._"

Professor McGonagall then let us go to lunch with the other students.

"I felt sure that we would be expelled." Kalea said.

"Professor Snape probably said we should but the others must have voted against it." George said.

"Speaking of Professor Snape, I thought we were going to be spending detention with him." I mused.

We all fell into silence as we devoured our lunch and thought about what Filch would make us do.

* * *

**A/N So please review about if you don't like it as much as me (which probably isn't possible) or if you do like it or please just review! 'Cause I know I have a lot more readers than reviewers. So pretty please R&R (No flames!)**

**And I will try and get a new chapter out soon!**


	4. Danishes and boys

**A/N SO sorry that I haven't updated in so long!!! Sorry!**

**Anyway, this is your compensation (not much I know. But I should be bringing out the next chapter soon-sooner that before by far)**

**Um. So hope you enjoy.**

**Oh! :O I'm going to be skipping scenes and stuff (such as some of the tasks etc.) but I will mention them in the story so you know roughly what the date is etc.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

I walked along the hallway slowly, checking over my shoulder every so often and quietly humming the mission impossible theme under my breath. My target got closer and closer and just as I was upon it I saw something I really did not want to see. Mrs. Norris. I raced back down the hallway as soon as she started yowling, hoping and praying to a god I didn't believe in, that Filch wouldn't catch me. After all Kalea, Fred, George and I were still serving our detentions with him.

I heard hurrying footsteps behind me and decided to drop the dungbombs where I was, that way I would be rid of the evidence if I was caught and Filch would get a noseful of it as he chased after me. I sprinted down so many corridors I was starting to think I had become lost when I suddenly saw a beacon of shining light, the portrait of the fat lady (Wow, never thought I'd say that). I practically screamed the password at her before jumping into the common room.

I had barely been in the room for 3 milliseconds before the other three bombarded me with questions, each of them speaking over the others.

"Did you do it?"

"How'd it go?"

"Anyone see you?"

"Did you get caught?"

I glared at George, "Yes. I just sprinted in here after being caught because I thought it would be fun." I said sarcastically.

"Why?" George asked, genuine puzzlement written on his face.

I gave him a funny look before walking up the stairs to the girl's dorm. I could hear Kalea explaining to him that I had been sarcastic and hadn't really been caught as I headed up.

_

* * *

_

Gwen,

_Meet us in the fifth floor corridor near the tapestry of the shapeshifter at midnight. Burn this letter after reading._

_Love your spy buddies,_

_Skye and Kalea._

* * *

It was 12.01 when Kalea and I reached the designated meeting spot and Gwen was waiting for us already. We signaled to her to follow us and stay quiet before heading to the picture of the pear that led to the kitchens. Kalea tickled the pear while I checked that no one was around and we all slipped inside.

Gwen opened her mouth in wonder as the house elves bustled over to us and offered us something to eat. We ordered some hot chocolates and fruit danishes to share between us before settling down at one of the tables. We sat in silence until the food arrived and then the conversation started.

"What did you think of those Beuxbaton boys?" Gwen asked, she had always had a thing for French boys.

"They didn't nearly compare to the Durmstrangs." Kalea answered.

"Of course they didn't compare, they outshone them!"

"Nah-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Shut it both of you." I said, before shoving a danish into each of their mouths.

"Muexmamoms mule." Gwen said, trying to speak through a mouth of pastry and apple goodness.

I sipped my hot chocolate as I waited for the two of them to start talking again.

"So, I noticed you guys are hanging out with Fred and George, anything _else _going on?" Gwen asked sweetly.

"No." I answered, glaring at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Ok." She said slyly, shooting a quick glance at Kalea. It was only then that I realised that Kalea had not said a word throughout the whole conversation. But she couldn't, surely she wouldn't. Maybe she did. I would have to ask her in the dormitories tonight without Gwen otherwise Calli and Bella would find out and who knew who they would tell.

"What about you, Gwen? Meet any guys you fancy?" I asked, deciding to take the spotlight off Kalea.

"I have a boyfriend." Gwen answered, beaming. She had always been a bit of a romantic, always after love.

"Who?"

"Roger Davies." She mumbled, blushing.

"Davies?! As in the quidditch captain who most of Gryffindor seem to hate?"

"Um… Yeah."

"Oh my god."

"What?"

"You can't tell any of our friends. They might kill you or something." Gwen shook her head at this comment from Kalea whilst I was nodding in agreement.

"Whatever." Gwen said. "We should probably go to bed now though."

"Mmmm." I mumbled. "Say hi to Calli and Bella for us." We all hugged before heading up to our towers, watching for teachers and prefects the whole way.

* * *

"Kalea…"

"Don't even try."

"So you do."

"Stop it."

"Come on Kalea. I won't tell anyone."

"I'm still not going to tell you."

"You do!"

"I don't!"

"It's George isn't it?"

There was silence for a while before Kalea whispered, "Yes."

"Oh my god, Kalea! That's so sweet! Are you going to tell him?"

"Not yet. Now drop it." She said, silencing me with a death glare. We arrived at the potions room and settled down in our seats at the back where Fred and George already were. I made sure to leave the spot next to George free for Kalea to sit in, sadly she knew what I was doing and gave me a look that very clearly said, "Drop it. Now."

Snape walked into the classroom then, saving me from Kalea's evil looks that were being sent my way.

"Today we will be making Draught of the Living Death." Snape drawled from the front of the room.

"Ooh." I whispered to Fred, he snickered and Snape glared at us.

Snape then proceeded to tell us to open our textbooks to page something-or-other and then start the potion. We made our potions in silence and then placed them on Snape's desk before heading to the great hall. The hall was alive with laughter and gaiety as the Hogwart's students mingled with both the Beuxbatons and the Durmstrangs and Fred, George, Kalea and I settled down at the Gryffindor table.

"Pass the bacon." I said to George.

"You could be more polite."

"Mmm. Or I couldn't. Pass me the bacon. Now."

"Whatever." George said passing me down the bacon. I piled my plate high with bacon before passing the plate to Kalea who did the same thing. We liked bacon.

"So, how are your aging spells going?" Kalea asked the twins.

"Great. We've almost perfected them!"

"So you're seriously going to do it?" I asked, my voice betraying a bit of my worry. "You could be killed!"

"But that's the best bit, the adrenaline rush!" Fred said.

"We all like an adrenaline rush, but not like that!" I said.

"We're going to enter and you can't stop us." George stated, before going back to shoveling food into his mouth.

I shared a worried look with Kalea before deciding to drop it, for a little while at least.

* * *

"Nice beards."

"Shove it."

"They are quite dashing really."

"You heard him. Shove it."

"Oh. I really like them. You should keep them."

"We hate you guys. Why can't you drop it?"

"'Cause, we told you not to do it. You could be killed, you won't get past the age line. But you did it anyway, and now look at you. You're Dumbledore-mini's in the making."

Kalea and I started cracking up at this point, Fred and George just looked so funny, they were lying in beds in the hospital wing with long grey beards trailing down their bodies. Madame Pomfrey came in at this point and made shooing motions to us so Kalea and I left with a final grin and wave of the hands to the twins.

* * *

**A/N So. I know it was short and filled with Dialogue but thats because I wanted the next section in the next chapter so... please R&R!**


	5. Stalkers, Griffins, Bears aaaand

**A/N Hey. so, Really sorry this wasn't updated but I got a mac (haven't got windows on it yet) and didn't realise 'til today that I CAN put my word documents onto textedit. So yeah. It's all my stupid fault.**

**So heres the next chapter. It's NOT the best. just letting you know. But it's important to the story and stuff and I didn't want to waste time trying to put anything else in it. Cause theres already been a HUGE gape between this chapter and the last one. **

* * *

"You have purdy hair." I said, twirling Fred's hair around my finger. Kalea snorted behind me and Fred made some sort of funny noise. I looked up at him to see an extremely odd expression on his face, one I couldn't quite fathom. I quickly pulled away from him and looked at the floor, there was a sort of hunger in that look that scared me.

"So…"

"Want to test some of our products?"

"No."

"Oh, come on." George whined.

"N. O. Which part don't you understand?" I asked, arching my eyebrow.

"The O." He said cheekily. I smacked him across the head before running ahead of the others and jumping up two steps at a time, we were on our way to some meeting McGonagall had organised for the Gryffindors. I waited outside until the others arrived, and then we all headed inside.

The chairs were all pushed to the sides of the room and the girls were sitting on one side with the boys on the other, a huge gramophone was sitting in the middle of the room and Professor McGonagall stood next to it. Kalea and I said goodbye to the twins before sitting down with all the other girls. Once everyone was there and seated McGonagall informed us all that there would be a Yule ball at Christmas this year and that we all had to learn how to dance because otherwise we would look like, and I quote, 'A Babbling Bumbling Bunch of Baboons.' Yes. Those were her exact words. Fred and George were saying it all night; it's why I can remember it so well.

"So who are you two girlies going to go with?" George asked, taking a break from his and Fred's tongue twister competition.

"girlies?" I asked. He just snickered, regular George.

"Why does it matter to you?" Kalea asked, I could tell that she wanted him to ask her to go with him.

"'Cause we want to make sure that our girls don't go with some arseholes from Durmstrang or something." Fred said grinning.

"Hey! Two things, Mr. Weasley." I said, mock glaring at him. "First, you don't know anything about the Durmstrangs, they could be wonderful people. And second, we are NOT your girls. Got it?!"

"Ok." Fred said, cowering down a bit.

"Haha, well I for one, don't plan on letting any arseholes near our girls, so, Kalea, would you like to go to the ball with me?" George asked, he seemed nervous.

Kalea choked for a while before managing to whisper, "Yes."

Fred opened his mouth to say something but didn't manage to get anything out before I said, "Don't even think about it." He grinned and planted a kiss on my cheek before walking over to Angelina Johnson and asking her to go to the ball with him.

* * *

Kalea and I were sitting in an unused classroom later when she brought up the subject of who I was going to take to the ball.

"So… Skye. Is it just me or did it look like Fred was going to ask you to the ball?"

"So, Kalea. Do you have a death wish asking me stupid questions?"

"Oh please. He was so going to ask you."

"Yeah, as a friend, which is why I told him to shut it."

"But do you _really _want him to go with Angelina. I mean she's got a bit of a reputation."

"Wow, Kal. Never thought I'd hear you talk like that. Anyway, why should I care who he goes out with or what he does."

"mmhm. I guess."

"Besides, we have more important things to discuss."

"Like what?" God, that girl could be thick sometimes. I mean the guy who she likes asks her to a ball and then she doesn't realise how important that is.

"Like what's for dinner." I said sarcastically.

"Skye. Don't be mean." She pouted at me.

"Fine. Lets talk about you and George then."

"He asked me to the ball!" Kalea squealed. I mentally slapped myself in the head.

"Yes. Kalea, I think we both saw that." Kalea just giggled like a little girl.

"Well. I should probably find out what colour he's wearing so that when I buy my dress we won't clash." I decided then to leave her to her musings and walked off.

* * *

I was walking alone in the Hogwarts grounds when I felt like someone was watching me. Again. Almost everywhere I went I felt like there was someone behind me, following me. I kept walking for a bit, pretending that I couldn't feel the person that I _knew _was there before I quickly turned around. And saw a figure dart behind a tree.

"I know your there. I can see you." I called out, trying not to sound scared. It was probably just another student trying to exact revenge for a prank. Nonetheless, I whipped my wand out of my robes as the figure emerged from behind the tree.

It was a griffin!

No! It was a bear waving its paws in the air!

Whoops. It was a boy, in a fur coat, with his arms in the air. I hastily stuffed my wand back in my robes before running up to meet the poor boy that I had probably startled half to death. Then again, he was the one who had been following me.

"Hi. Sorry for scaring you like that. But were you following me?" I asked him upon reaching him. He was quite handsome I had to admit, he had a thick set jaw and high cheekbones, his hair was light blonde and his eyes were an icy blue and he was most definitely a Durmstrang, I could tell by the clothes. Mmmmm, Durmstrang.

"I, uh. well. I. it. you see. ...yourreallypretty and iwantedtoask youtotheballbut didnthavethecourage " He gushed. Wow. Really hot Durmstrang guy wanted to go the Yule ball with me, i think. It was hard to tell what he had just said. I no longer cared if he had been stalking me; I was starting to think I might stalk him.

"What did you say?" I asked gently. " I couldn't really understand."

"I. Uh. Well I said, your." He took a deep breath. "I said your really pretty and I wanted to ask you to the ball but didn't have the courage." He had a cute little grin on his face when he finished and I really wanted to reach out and kiss him.

"Hey, uh what's your name?" I suddenly realised.

"It's Ivar Hansen."

"Cool. I'm Skye Archer. Well my full names Skylar, but if you call me that I'll have to kill you." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"So does that mean you'll go to the ball with me?" He asked, a touch concerned.

"Yes I will." I said, giving him a saucy smile. "But only if we get to know each other first."

"How do you mean?" Confused Durmstrangs are a lot hotter than expected.

"I mean a date." Ivar broke into a grin when I said this and we then agreed to meet at the Three Broomsticks –after Kalea and I had gone dress shopping- on the next Hogsmeade weekend.

* * *

I walked up to the common room slowly, digesting all that had just happened. _I _had got a date for the ball and a date with a Durmstrang. I couldn't wait to see the look on Kalea's face, or for that matter Fred or George's. And of course I had to tell Calli, Gwen and Bella, it would be cruel of me not to. But then, what if I just surprised them by showing up with him? Argh, too much to think about.

When I got into the common room I was greeted first by my cats and then by Kalea.

"Anyway, I was thinking. George is wearing a green tuxedo. GREEN! Can you imagine! So i've got to get a colour that goes with that. Maybe a pale pink? Hey. What's going on? You look all dreamy. Oh! Did you decide to go with Fred after all."

I glared at her before telling her all about my meeting with Ivar and how we were going to the ball together.

"I can't believe you!" Kalea gasped at the end.

"What are you on about?"

"Fred most definitely wanted to go with you and you completely ignored him and then picked the next guy that came along!"

"Just because you wanted us to be some double dating couple doesn't mean that life works like that! Life isn't all butterflies and fairies like you seem to believe!"

"Sometimes life does work like that and life gave us that chance today, but you completely ignored it! Why can't you ever think about others before you say things? Just because you think Fred was asking you as a friend doesn't mean he was! You hurt him with your abrupt dismissal and now your hurting me." Kalea's yelling turned into a whisper at the end and my eyes widened as she started to cry.

"Oh god Bobby." I said, using her old nickname. "Why are we fighting? We've never fought before. I'm sorry, I really am." I said, placing my arms around her. we sat together on her bed until her crying stopped and then she went into the bathroom and cleaned her face up for dinner. Dinner, where I would tell Fred and George about my date for the ball and apologise for anytime i'd hurt them.

**

* * *

A/N Yep. There you go. Please R&R, tell me what you thought and any ideas that you'd like me to put in.**


	6. Ivar the Sexy

**A/N So this is chap 6 (obviously), really sorry i haven't updated. I was going to just leave the story but people kept reading it and putting it on alert. SO ITS YOUR OWN FAULT THAT YOU GOT ANOTHER CHAPTER. and yes. I will be writing more chapters. Happy? **

* * *

Dinner that night had been an interesting affair. The boys hadn't been ready for my apologies, and they most definitely were not prepared for the idea of me going to the Yule Ball with Ivar. And if it hadn't been for everything Kalea had been saying to me I might not have noticed the glint that passed across Fred's eyes when I told them the news, a glint that seemed a lot like jealousy.

After finding out about our date, the twins -and Lee- decided they needed to come along to check how suitable this guy was. Kalea kept telling me that they actually wanted to see what made Ivar more to my taste than Fred – I kept telling her that this was bullshit – however her crazy ideas were slowly getting to me, and those boys weren't coming anywhere near my date.

* * *

Gwen and Calli were in party mode getting ready for the ball, we had sat together during a Transfiguration class and they spent over half the class talking about their dates, their dresses, hairstyles and their makeup. It was during a slight lull in the conversation that I was able to ask what was wrong with Isabella, she'd been sitting right in the back on her own pulling a sulking face that just _screamed _'please come listen to my problems, please, please, please'. God that girl could sulk.

'Oh, she's pissed that no ones asked her to the ball. Iz reckons that they're just not asking her because she's too pretty but the truth is – and I got this from a _very _good source –that all of the guys think she's too stuck up and a bit of a, well, a bit of a bitch and that really detracts from her overall beauty.' Callidora seemed like she agreed with her source as she spoke.

'She belongs in Slytherin.' Gwen said spitefully.

'Gwen!' Calli was aghast at our friends comment, I was just trying not to smile in agreement. 'Just because she can be a bit… hard to get along with sometimes doesn't mean she belongs with _those_ people!'

'Oh, geez_, those _people. That's a bit harsh. You don't even know them. For all you know they could be quite nice.' I retorted.

'I did _not _just here you say that.' Fred piped up from behind us. I turned around to glare at him, he sat with Kalea who was grinning at me wickedly.

'We shouldn't be so mean to the Slytherins. They're just regular people in need of love and cuddles and maybe a bi-' but the rest of my sentence was cut off by McGonagall snapping at me to 'turn around and pay attention'. She was definitely PMSing, couldn't even cope with a bit of chatter.

I stayed quiet until McGonagall seemed like she was no longer listening and then began speaking to Calli in a hushed voice. 'So exactly how pissed is she?' I asked, returning to our previous conversation.

'She's mad enough that she's been sending owls asking if she can go back to Australia.'

'And good riddance I say.' Gwen's addition to our conversation was met by a glare from Callidora.

'You need to be nicer to her Gwen. I'm sure she's homesick, and then all of this would be getting to her.'

'Yeah, but she needs to learn to cope with new situations.' I pitched in. 'She can't keep relying on her family to get her out of everything. Which you know they will.'

'And then it's bye bye Bella!' Kalea whispered from behind us. Calli was about to respond to her comment- no doubt by again telling us 'be nice' – when McGonagall came to check on our work.

'Well, seeing as you've been so _chatty _this lesson why don't you show me your work first Miss Archer?' She fixed me with her luminous cat eyes. I grinned at her before turning my gaze down to Lisca who was sprawled on my desk. The spell we were performing involved turning our familiars into a sparrow then turning them back- all without speaking. I wondered if McGonagall would take the excuse that I had better things to do than kill my cat, before I cast the spell and voila! It had worked, Lisca was a sparrow, I then did the counter-spell in my head, because after all that was what I was supposed to do, and there was my kitty lying on the table again. I looked up at McGonagall to find her smiling, not a look that particularly suited her face, she really shouldn't do that too often.

'Good work Miss Archer.' She commented, before moving on to see how Gwen and Calli performed the spell. After that she moved behind us to Fred and Kalea and I grew nervous, after all Kalea had Zeke to do the spell on. Thankfully however she pulled it off with effortless grace, and Fred did as well.

* * *

At lunch Kalea, Fred and I met up with George and Lee who told us all about what they had gotten up to in their free time. The two of them had been testing some of Fred and George's Joke products and had ended up covered in great big balls of pus all over their bodies and when Kalea had said this was gross Fred had grinned had her and said it was the 'desired effect' as long as the pus balls went down after the right amount of time.

'How long did they take to go down?' He asked, aiming his question to Lee and George.

'An hour, excellent timing to get out of class, up the staircase and into the commonroom.' Lee replied, George grinned along with him.

'And they're all gone? Because you remember what happened with the last batch right?'

'Every last one of them.' I shook my head at the boy's exploits. You had to admit that it took guts to test ones products upon one's own body; they really did want their joke shop and it was so good of Lee to help them.

'So…six days till the Yule ball.' Kalea said, changing the conversation to something that she could talk about.

'And one until the Hogsmeade visit.' Lee added. This managed to kill the conversation for a bit, as the boys didn't want to talk about my date with Ivar the sexy. However Kalea soon started talking again about what colours she and George should wear and soon the two of them were in an animated conversation for the rest of lunch.

* * *

It was possible that I woke up a little too early the next morning, I was just so excited to be going on a date with Ivar and I spent quite a while deciding what I would wear and how I would do my hair. In the end I wore a simple dress with stockings, boots, and a fitted coat. I left my hair straight but brushed it till it shone and put on a light layer of makeup. All before the rest of my roommates had even stirred from their slumber.

When we went down to breakfast George seemed to be holding most of the conversation while Fred just shoveled as much food as he could into his mouth. Lee on the other hand was off flirting with Alicia who seemed to be enjoying his attention immensely and was flirting right back.

After breakfast Kalea and I met up with Calli and Gwen and the four of us headed to Hogsmeade together to go dress shopping. On the way there, Gwen told us all about how Isabella was leaving today –as it was the start of the holidays- to go home to Australia.

'Well, I know she wanted to go home but the least she could've done was say goodbye.' Kalea said in an offended tone.

'Well she might have had to leave early, and she can't get into the Gryffindor commonrooms, can she?' I replied, trying to be reasonable.

'Actually she wasn't leaving until midday.' Calli said quietly.

'Oh. Well that changes a few things. That's so bitchy!' I was going to say a few more things but just then we arrived at our destination- the dress shop.

Kalea was the first to find something she liked, seeing a floor length pale pink dress that would match perfectly with George's suit. Gwen found a strapless purple dress that fitted her figure perfectly and came to her knees. Calli spent an hour looking at practically every dress before settling on an apricot dress, also floorlength. My dress was a beautiful lacy white that was fitted around the torso and flared out to finish just above the knees.

After our dress shopping I said goodbye to my friends and headed over to the Three Broomsticks where I met up with Ivar who had already saved us a table in the corner. We greeted each other and I was thrilled by the sound of what I believed to be a Romanian accent, Ivar had apparently gotten over his earlier quietness because after we had ordered a couple of butterbeers he was straight into it.

'Tell me what brings you to Hogwarts?' He asked. 'For you do not sound very English.'

'I'm on an exchange program from Australia where I'll be finishing my last two years of schooling here.' I smiled at him.

'That sounds interesting.' He fell into a pensive silence, then smiled his cute smile at me, causing the butterflies to have a brief fly around in search of some yummy stomach to eat. 'Why Hogwarts? Why not Durmstrang or Beuxbatons?'

'Hogwarts is highly renowned amongst the wizarding community, you should know that, and Dumbledore was willing to take us.' I didn't allow him to answer before asking him a question. 'Why me? Why not some other girl? After all there are a lot of pretty girls at Hogwarts.'

'Yes, there are a lot of pretty girls at Hogwarts.' _Oh. Well then_. 'But you're definitely prettier than the rest of them.' I tried not to grin, I wasn't prettier than _all _of them but… a compliment was a compliment. 'And from what I saw of you around the place- and heard of you- you seemed like someone fun and easy to get along with.' He gave me his cute grin again.

I heard a loud clutter behind us and turned around to see the waitress had dropped someone's butterbeer and now they were cursing angrily at her. I sighed- not my problem- and was turning back around when I noticed two flaming crops of red hair and one lot of black dreadlocks sitting in the booth across from us. Damn. I told them many times not to come, and when they hadn't listened I had told them I was going to Madame Puddifoot's. I had even walked in there and then slipped out the bathroom window- not an easy feat. Those three were too good at this; they were going to get it when we got back to Hogwarts. But for the time being it seemed like I should at least enjoy my date.

For the rest of the date we talked about trivial things, but most of the time my mind was on Fred, George and Lee, and why they had had to come. I didn't need a male escort and they knew it. I could protect myself, if they weren't careful I'd protect myself against them. Every so often I looked into Ivar's eyes and smiled and he would smile back, but I wasn't getting butterflies from the exchange anymore- the boys had ruined that for me. When we got up to leave Ivar was gentlemanly enough to pay for both of our drinks and then escort me back to Hogwarts, during the walk I managed to loosen up as it was too obvious for the twins and Lee to follow us without being noticed- not that they hadn't been already- but at least now I was able to enjoy my date with Ivar, and after we got inside he shyly pecked me on the cheek before disappearing out to the Durmstrang boat.

* * *

I sat up in the commonroom reading a book on quidditch when the three culprits walked in, acting like nothing had happened.

'Hey Skye!'

'Hey!'

'Hey!'

'What aren't you going to say hi to us?' Fred said after a significant pause.

'No. I'm not. What do you boys think you were doing spying on my date?' I asked, barely keeping my outrage in check. 'I told you that I didn't want you there, and yet there you were _spying _on me.'

'I think spying is a bit of a harsh word.' George said. Lee was nodding in agreement while Fred just looked hurt. 'I mean after all, we were just having a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks at the same time as you, and you said you were going to Madame Puddifoots anyway.'

'George, I saw those extendable ear things or whatever they are under the table- which does remind me I thought they were still in prototype stage?- oh nevermind. The point is you were definitely spying, and I'm not happy about it.'

'Yeah, well I'm not happy about the fact that you're going out with that Ivar guy.' Fred piped up. 'He seems like a right twat.'

'Fred!'

'No. It doesn't matter. I'm leaving anyway.' And with that Fred walked out of the portrait hole to god knows where. George sighed and gave me a rueful look before following his brother and Lee headed up to their room. And yet again I was left to my own solitude for company.

* * *

**Please R&R (no flames)**


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